New Years Day / The Dirty Youth / The Red Paintings

Ash Costello proves her star power

It’s doubtful that anyone here was expecting to be entertained by a man in a deerstalker, ballgown and R2-D2 backpack, but that’s
what they’re getting from THE RED PAINTINGS [6].

Frontman Trash McSweeney is flanked by someone painting and a woman sporting a papier-mâché mask and waving her hands around. Musically like My Chemical Romance covering Nick Cave, and visually it’s West End theatre on a secondary school budget. There’s a fine line between unashamedly dealing in clichés like big harmonies and gothic synths to make them bombastic and fun, and lobbing them all into your songs to conform to a genre.